Clean & inexpensive (Elena Beach Hotel)

Member Name: Talker

Product:	Elena Beach Hotel
Date:	12/09/01 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: price

Disadvantages: vegetarian food, inadequate aircon

The Elena Beach is a small family-run 70-room 3-star hotel. It met every expectation and was quite sufficient for an inexpensive (just over £400 a head including flight) family holiday. The rooms were clean if spartan, the beds not too uncomfortable.

The pool was a 6 metre by 20 metre (my approximations) rectangular with no exciting features, but more than adequate for cooling off and the kids to splash around in. The water could have been cleaner; it was a bit cloudy by midday and two of my three kids complained of earaches on our return to the UK. Don't know if that's related, of course. Even coming down late, we were usually able to find five sunbeds and some shade -- I guess most people hogged the sunny spots.

The hotel is right on the beach. It's just a few feet away, though it's a bit pebbly to get into the water. You have to walk a little bit south to find the less pebbly bit. It's very pleasant in the evening to sit out and listen to the waves lapping against the shore.

The two biggest problems were the duff air conditioning and lousy vegetarian food.
Air con: very variable, occasionally it cooled the rooms to an acceptable level, but mostly it failed to meet the demands placed on it by Cyprus's baking summer temperatures.
Food: aimed squarely at the British market with bacon and eggs in the morning, familiar meat dishes in the evening. There's no menu, so you get whatever the chef's offering in the evening. There are usually five salads (often two will include meat or seafood), together with three or four main courses and some boiled vegetables.
For vegetarians, pickings are slim. The hotel will provide special vegetarian meals, but they're rather unappetizing. Pasta covered with white gunge failed to excite my kids, who usually devour pasta. In fact, we often found ourselves piling on the salads and leaving the vegetarian dishes untouched.

Those two problems notwith
standing, I'd recommend it as a budget location.

Summary: